Resident Evil: The Bane Virus

Chapter 2

October 28, 2006 – 08:21

Rayne parked in the furthest lot from the school, preferring this nearly empty one to the over-crowded ones closer to the entrances. Together they got out of the car and began to make their way to the main entrance, Rayne staring out over the tops of the other student's heads as if he was trying to find someone.

"Have you seen her yet?" He asked Chelsey, who shook her head slowly as she focused on putting one foot in front of the other without tripping.

"No, not yet. Why? You can usually wait at least until lunch time." She replied groggily.

"No reason really, I just want to see her."

"Dude, you are so whipped." She commented just before they separated to head to their homerooms.

"Dammit." Rayne whispered, pushing his way through the unyielding throng of people to get to his class.

Bane set the packaged sandwich on the counter beside a bottle of pop, staring patiently at the clerk from behind his sunglasses.

"That'll be $4.78 sir." The clerk told him.

Silently Bane handed him the credit card he'd stolen earlier that morning, nothing on his face belying the fact that the card wasn't his own. The clerk swiped the card, then waited as Bane forged a perfect signature on the receipt then collected the bag his food had gone into and headed to the door.

"Excuse me sir!" The clerk yelled, coming out from behind the counter. Bane idly slid his hand behind his back, under his coat to silently grasp the handle of his Beretta 90two. He turned to face the clerk, keeping his face smooth and emotionless, "Mr. Pomeroy, you forgot your card."

"Oh, ah…" Bane said slowly, taking the card from the clerk's hand, "ah, thank you."

He left the store quickly, without another glance at either the clerk or the card nestled in the palm of his hand. Outside, he walked several blocks away from the store before stopping and sitting on a bus stop bench, holding his head as he realized that he'd been ready to kill the clerk had he made a wrong move.

A bus suddenly stopped in front of him, the sound of it breaking it from his thoughts. He quickly shook his head at the driver, who made an obscene gesture towards him before continuing on his route, and stood from the bench. He looked across the street at the derelict courtyard of the high school, surprised at how empty it looked despite the fact that it was currently full of students. Idly he wondered what it would have been like, to attend school, to spend time with people who were both similar and vastly different than himself. Not for the first time did he curse his father for doing this to him, experimenting on him as though he were just another test subject. The red eyes were hard enough to hide as it was, but without proper social skills and other things that most kids took for granted, he had little hope of making friends or having any semblance of a normal life.

He stood staring at the school until suddenly the bell rung, signaling the lunch hour as the teenagers came pouring out of the building. He was about to walk away when he saw her, his blonde haired beauty walking out the doors to stand by a tree a little ways away from everyone else as though she were waiting for someone.

Bane could only stand there and stare at her, trying to tell himself to walk forward, talk to her, be friends with her, do something that would make her see that he was alive. He stopped himself short, however, realizing that he couldn't have the liberty to indulge in a senseless teenage crush. Besides, he thought, she probably has a boyfriend or something. How could someone that beautiful not already have a boyfriend?

He watched as a boy with dark auburn hair walked up to the girl, greeting her with a warm hug as he talked to her. Bane shrugged and finally found the will to look away, wishing that someday, maybe, he could have something like that.

"Have you seen her yet?" Rayne asked Chelsey, hugging her quickly as he joined her under the tree.

"No Rayne, I haven't seen her yet. Just calm down for god's sake." Chelsey told him, staring across the street to the bus stop where she could have sworn she saw a man staring at her.

"Shit, where the hell is she?" Rayne said impatiently.

"She'll be here dude, she always is, no matter how many times I tell the two of you to get a room," She said without sympathy, "and here comes your lovely lady now."

Rayne's head swiveled immediately towards the front doors of the school, watching the petite black curly haired beauty walked towards him, a scowl etched on her face as she dodged around more students milling around the entrance area. He stared into her dark, chocolate eyes as she came closer and closer until she stood right in front of him, grasped his hair at the back of his head and pulled his head down to her and kissed him passionately, causing Chelsey to look away.

"Well, good morning to you too Kat." Chelsey said when she was sure the both of them should have been gasping for breath.

"Sorry Chelsey," Kat replied, turning to her best friend, "I just… I really needed to do that."

"Well don't I feel special." Rayne cracked, earning small smiles from both girls.

"So, where we going for lunch today?" Kat asked softly, hooking arms with both of them.

"Well, figured we just go to the sub place across the street," Rayne replied, "though I wanted to do something first." He pulled something out of his pocket, then held his closed fists towards Kat, "Pick a hand, any hand."

Kat looked at him for a moment, looking into his emerald green eyes for some clue as to what he had, and which hand it was in. Tentatively, she pointed at his right fist then watched as he opened his hand to reveal a long, then golden chain. She felt a small amount of disappointment at first before she noticed the obsidian heart bordered in gold hanging from it. She let out a yelp of joy as he motioned for her to turn around then fastened it at the base of her neck.

"Happy one year anniversary, Katrina" He said softly before she flung her arms around him and kissed him until he was out of breath again.

"What's in the other hand?" Chelsey asked, a tinge of jealousy in her voice.

"A gift for my best friend, of course." Rayne replied easily, opening his left hand to reveal two rose crystal stud earrings that he held out to her.

"What if I had chosen the left hand?" Kat asked, fingering her new necklace as Chelsey changed her earrings.

"I knew you'd pick the right one, you always do."

"Next time I'll choose the left." She said happily, "now let's go get us some lunch."

The other two nodded their agreement as Kat hooked her arm around Rayne's and Chelsey fell into step right behind them, jealous of their relationship. She wished that someday, she could have something like that. Hmph, she thought angrily,

Thomas Scott was weary. For eight years now he and his hand-picked team of Retrievers had been scouring the continent for any sign of the wayward B-virus carrier. They'd almost had him in Los Angeles six years ago, but the boy who called himself Bane Stryfe killed three of his men before managing to escape them once again, disappearing entirely. It'd taken them the last three years to finish covering most cities in the United States, and the president of Parasol Enterprises had sent them into Canada to continue the search.

He drove down the road in his pickup truck, trying to find his way back to the Parasol office building situated in the middle of the city. It had been an Umbrella office, and when they went out of business, Parasol quickly refurbished the building and re-opened it, offering the city badly needed jobs. He had stopped here in Munin to rest for a couple days before heading north to Edmonton to rendezvous with his Retrievers.

He had a coffee cup nestled in his lap as he tried to flatten out a road map across his passenger seat. He wasn't paying attention as a young man and woman started crossing the street, followed closely by another young woman.

Bane was taking one last longing look at the blonde-haired girl when he saw the truck barreling towards the three teens. He knew that even if he shouted a warning, the girl wouldn't move in time so he ran as fast as he possibly could, pushing the girl into her friends a split second before the truck crumpled in around him, forcing him back only several inches as he stood his ground. A piece of metal wrenched itself off the truck and slashed towards Bane's face, making him flinch in pain as it scratched his face and knocked his sunglasses off.

Thomas managed to lift his head from the airbag that had deployed, his head pounding with pain as he stared out his window to see what he hit. He froze as he saw the man's red eyes, staring into his own with unbridled wrath. The sight of those eyes frightened him, scared him more than anything else in his entire life. He found himself shivering with cold as the eyes turned away from him, focusing on the three teens on the side of the road, also staring at the man with the glowing red eyes.

"Shit." Bane murmured, knowing the sight of his eyes would scare them so he turned away, picking up his sunglasses and putting them back on before turning to leave when he felt a hand on his arm.

"Wait." Chelsey said, brushing gravel from her pants as she turned Bane to face her, "who are you?"

"Nobody you should know." Bane replied coldly, the unfamiliar situation forcing him to become defensive.

"Why did you save me?" She asked, confused.

"Because I could." He said shortly, resisting the bodily urge to tear his arm out of her grasp.

"But how in the hell did you survive that?" Kat exclaimed from behind Rayne, clearly frightened of him.

"That's for me to know and you not to." He said, pulling easily out of Chelsey's grip and preparing to run.

"Wait," Chelsey repeated, reaching out to grab him again but stopping at the look on his face, "Thank you for saving me."

Unused to kindness from anyone, Bane curtly nodded before running away.

"Shit! What the hell was that?" Rayne said, staring after the strange man.

"I've seen him before," Chelsey replied, "he tends to hang out around here a lot, always wearing the same clothes and with those glasses on, though now we know why."

"How the hell can you be so calm about this shit?" Kat asked, "you were almost killed."

"Yeah, but I wasn't, was I?" She replied, then turned her head as she heard the police and ambulance sirens in the distance. "Come on, let's get the hell out of here." She said when they heard a scraping of metal. They looked back at the truck and saw the driver get out, stare at them for a moment, then take off in the opposite direction the sirens were coming from.

"I concur," Rayne said quickly, "let's get outta here."

"You guys go," Chelsey said softly, "I'm going after him."

"Which one? The driver?" Kat asked, surprised.

"No… the survivor."

Thomas ran from the accident scene, heading away from the coming sirens. He slowed down to a walk several blocks away, going over everything he'd seen in his mind, the way the truck folded around the kid, how his eyes glowed as he had met the kid's gaze, and how he managed to run away after getting hit by a truck going 50 mph.

He mingled in with the pedestrians, wiping the blood from his forehead with his sleeve as he looked around for a phone booth. Spotting an empty one nearby, he eased his way over to it and stepped inside, closing the door behind him and picking up the receiver before swiping his encoded card in the phone card slot. Immediately the line was picked up, a gruff voice saying a single word.

"What?"

"Retriever 057 with emergency report, access 8441425A." Thomas replied softly, the urgency in his voice almost tangible.

"One moment." The gruff voice said, followed by several minutes of silence.

"Report." A female voice commanded suddenly, startling him as he began his report.

"Ma'am, I've located the Subject B-008 in Munin, Alberta," He said quickly, "Please advice how we should proceed."

"Has the Subject's presence been confirmed?" She asked suspiciously.

"Yes ma'am, I hit him with my truck and saw his eyes."

"Very well Retriever 057, report to Parasol office at 11405 32 St. and await further instructions."

"Yes ma'am." Thomas replied to dead air, the woman having already hung up.

He followed suit, exiting the phone booth and quickly hailing a taxi. Impatiently he gave the driver the address, then sat back in the seat, congratulating himself on a job well done.

Chelsey followed the path of bewildered pedestrians to find the man who'd saved her. Several times she'd been forced to ask people if they'd seen him, and number of times the people couldn't tell her, but eventually she got pointed in the direction of the derelict buildings that was once the cities nicest apartments, but that was a long time ago. She remembered playing around these aging buildings when she was just a child, but they'd been condemned for the last ten years. She crawled through a hole in the chain link fence that surrounded the area and headed towards the middle building, the only one that looked like you could go inside.

She was about to reach it when a movement to her side startled her and she spun, suddenly facing five tall men with dark clothes and sunglasses on. Two of them had their noses pierced multiple times and the one in front of the rest had a long jagged scar running from his temple to his chin.

"Well, well, well," Scar-face said, playing with a long butterfly knife as the others crowded around behind him, "looks like somebody decided to deliver."

"I don't want any trouble." Chelsey said quickly, backing away from the men, "I'm just looking for a guy that lives around here, medium height, red hair, dark sunglasses, you seen him?"

"Maybe we have, and maybe we haven't," Scar-face replied, "what're you offing for said information?"

"Dude," one of the pierced men said quietly, scratching his half-formed beard, "she's looking for Stryfe, maybe we shouldn't bother her."

"Shut up!" another of the men said, this one with a long scar across his throat, "who cares about her or him? We haven't had something this sweet in a long, long time."

"Umm, I'll just leave, I'm sorry to have bothered you." Chelsey said, turning and beginning to run but Scar-face reached out and grabbed her arm, twisting hard as he pulled her to him.

"Now you aren't going to refuse our hospitality, are you little lady?" He said as he pulled her close, closing his lips where her shoulder met her neck.

"No, let me go!" She cried, struggling against him as the other men just laughed at her plight.

"I got next." The bearded one said, licking his lips as he thought of all the things he could do to her until the other pierced one smacked him in the head.

"Hell no, she's mine next!" He said as the bearded man grasped him by the throat.

"Fuck you both!" The throat scar man said, grabbing them both by the head and smashing them together. "She's mine next."

"Let me go!" Chelsey screamed as Scar-face began to rip her pants off.

"One of you shut her up!" He commanded as he held both her wrists in one hand and tried to undo his pants with the other.

"I got a perfect something to shut her up." Throat-scar said in his gravely voice, unzipping his own pants. Just as he was about to pull out his organ he made a strange gurgling sound that made everyone look at him, staring at the tip of a knife protruding from his throat.

"Oh I'm sorry," Bane said as he pulled the knife out of the man's neck and wiped the blade across the dead man's shirt to get rid of the blood, "were you all in the middle of something? I can come back later."

"Get him!" Scar-face roared as he finished tearing Chelsey's pants off, pulling down her panties and preparing to enter her.

The four men rushed Bane who threw the knife without aiming, taking Pierced-nose in the eye before spinning and kicking out, catching the bearded man in the kneecap and shattering it. The other two froze for a moment, giving Bane plenty of time to grab one of their necks and snap it easily before turning to the other one and punching him in the gut. The man doubled over in pain, breathless, as Bane grabbed his head and kneed him hard, knocking him to the ground, unconscious.

"See, now that was rude. No wonder no one bothers with manners any more." Bane quipped, staring at the panicked look on Chelsey's face. Silently she pleaded him to help her, to save her.

"Who the hell are you?" Scar-face said, throwing Chelsey from him and doing up his pants. Chelsey landed heavily on the ground, too shocked to try to find her ruined pants and cover up.

"You know who I am," Bane replied, pulling his knife out of the man's eye, "Or did you forget our last meeting?"

"Fuck you!" He screamed, pulling out a small revolver from the small of his back. Bane reacted faster than Chelsey could watch, pulling his own gun from behind his back. Scar-face shot twice, but Bane easily dodged both shots before returning one of his own, hitting the man high in the shoulder. The force of impact cause him to spin, falling to the ground as blood began to spill out of the wound. As he lay on the ground, he aimed the gun at Chelsey, smiling and laughing as he pulled the trigger.

"Fuckin' bitch." He managed as he pulled the trigger two more times.

Bane watched the bullets leap from the revolver as if they were moving in slow motion. Moving as quickly as he could, he knelt in front of the girl as the first bullet reached them, imbedding itself into his back. He grimaced in pain as he lifted the girl out of the path of the last two bullets, one missing him and striking the pavement, the other grazing his lower calf. Looking back at the men, he hefted Chelsey in one hand and collected his knife and gun, putting a bullet into the two who'd been knocked unconscious, killing them, before holstering the weapon and carrying Chelsey into the building, laying her on his makeshift bed as she blacked out.